Ethiopia has the basins most suitable locations for hydropower production, and its damming of the Blue Nile would significantly increase Sudan's potential for irrigated agriculture. It too has legal arguments it could adduce in support of its position that the Dam is permitted under international law. l located on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia . Egypts original goal was to have the project purely and simply cancelled. On the contrary, GERD has a positive impact in terms of reducing flood and silting and boost water conservation as well as generate energy for the region. After all, the VCLT allows states to withdraw from or terminate a treaty owing to a fundamental change of circumstances which has occurred and which was not foreseen by the parties (Article 62(1)). Egypt has taken various efforts in a bid to secure its water security in the context of the Nile River. Article 5 requires that watercourse states utilise an international watercourse in an equitable and reasonable manner and creates the duty to cooperate in the protection and development of the watercourse. Environmental Impacts Of Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam On The Disputes over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), hailed by both Egypt and Ethiopia as a new chapter in relations between Egypt and Ethiopia based on openness and mutual understanding and cooperation (. Ultimately, all the water is allowed to pass downstream such that there is no net loss of flow (with the exception of water lost to evaporation). Negotiations resumed three weeks after Al-Sisi took office in June 2014, and an agreement was made to resume negotiations - an achievementhailed by both Egypt and Ethiopia as a new chapter in relations between Egypt and Ethiopia based on openness and mutual understanding and cooperation (Omar, 2014). A major reason the GERD is so controversial today is that it has not been subjected to thorough safety and impact studies, which could pose a grave threat to downriver nations. Addis Ababa launched the construction of the GERD under Zenawi, and work on it has proceeded at full steam ahead ever since. This antipathy is not new, with Munzinger noting even in the nineteenth century that Ethiopia is a danger for Egypt [which] must either take over Ethiopia and Islamize it or, retain it in anarchy and misery. Still, the Dam brings the old enmity into sharp focus. Workers move iron girders from a crane at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), near Guba, Ethiopia, on Dec. 26, 2019. Further, it means that this figure should be used to assess the impact of the Dam on the Egyptian economy for the purposes of calculating compensation resulting from loss of flow. Benefits from the Nile's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - Rural 21 2. Ethiopia's dam dispute: five key reads about how it started and how it Officials in Addis Ababa argue that the GERD will have no major impact on water flow into the Nile, instead arguing that the hydropower dam will provide benefits to countries in the region, including as a source of affordable electric power and as a major mechanism for the management of the Nile, including the mitigation of droughts and water salinity. Ethiopia, with a population of more than 115 million people and Projected to be 230 million by 2050. At stake, too, is . Thus, it is only through cooperation that Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, and the other riparians can peacefully resolve conflicts over the Nile and achieve the type of water use that will contribute significantly to regional economic and human development. Perhaps the most significant project in the 2003 plan was the Chemoga-Yeda Hydroelectric Project, a series of five small dams on Blue Nile tributaries and two dams on the Genale River with a couple more envisioned for a later phase. Before discussing the benefits, the article will brief the general technical overview of the GERDP. Egypt wants control and guarantees for its share of Nile waters. India dispatch: Supreme Court limits DNA paternity testing in divorce proceedings, prioritizing childrens privacy rights, US dispatch: Texas case could limit access to abortion medication, Copyright infringement made federal crime. An agreement between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is within reach, with the United Nations standing ready to support talks and the African Union-led process to settle remaining differences, the Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs told the Security Council in a 29 June videoconference meeting*. Search for jobs related to Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam or hire on the world's largest freelancing marketplace with 22m+ jobs. Yet, Ethiopia is fully aware of Somalias economic dependence on the rivers originating from Ethiopias highlands. They generate electricity, store water for crop irrigation and help to prevent floods. The crucial leverage regarding Egypts water security lies with the Blue Nile countries Ethiopia and Sudan, as the Blue Nile is the main contributor to the Nile Rivers flow downstream. It merely provides at Article III that Ethiopia undertakes not to construct any work across the Blue Nile, Lake Tsana, or the Sobat which would arrest the flow of their waters into the Nile. In other words, Ethiopia only agreed that it would not completely stop the flow of tributaries into the Nile. (2011). Furthermore, resolving conflicts involving the Nile River is most likely to be more successful through improvements in relations between the riparians and not through external intervention. Indeed, Egypt has called the filling of the dam an existential threat, as it fears the dam will negatively impact the countrys water supplies. Cameroon's Choupo-Moting scores winner as Bayern reclaim Bundesliga top.. English Premier League results & fixtures (26th matchday), Germany Bundesliga results & fixtures (23rd matchday), Israeli delegation expelled from the African Union summit. (2017). The three fillings hitherto, with the most recent in August 2022, imposed no discernible harm on downstream states. As noted above, the instrument concedes for the first time that Ethiopia has legitimate interests over the Nile. The Dam is being built by Ethiopia on the Nile River and is fiercely opposed by Egypt. It's very unpredictable and it can be very dangerous," says Pottinger. Owned and operated by the Ethiopian Electric Power company, the 145-m-tall roller-compacted concrete gravity dam . l Coordinates 111255N 3505 . . Construction of the 6,000-megawatt, US $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) began . For Ethiopia, GERD is considered an economic game-changer. DISADVANTAGES OF ASWAN DAM the agriculture output of Egypt. The countrys 2003 development plan introduced many more, and the Ethiopian government launched an ambitious PR campaign to encourage donor nations and international funding agencies to support these projects financially and ideologically as the highway to Ethiopian development and prosperity. Copyright 2023, JURIST Legal News & Research Services, Inc. Elliot Winter | New Castle University (UK), Egyptian Water Security and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Why Ethiopia has the Upper Hand, Vienna Convention on the Succession of States, history of copyright in the United States. General view of the talks on Hidase Dam, built on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia, between Sudan and Egypt in Khartoum, Sudan on October 04, 2019. The Dam is used to generate electricity and went into partial operation in 2022. Whittington, D. et al. Article IV of the DoP provides that the parties shall utilize their shared water resources in their respective territories in an equitable and reasonable manner and Article III provides that the parties shall take all appropriate measures to prevent the causing of significant harm in utilizing the Blue/Main Nile. Ethiopia can make a strong case that the operation of the Dam complies with each principle. This was an attempt at a wholesale replacement for the Nile Waters Treaties. While this means new opportunities to develop extended irrigation-based agriculture for the Sudanese, it represents also a new threat for Egypts current Nile water utilisation (Whittington et al., 2014). In any event, the dispute remains. The GERD has become a new reality challenging the traditional dynamics in the Nile River Basin. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a powerful generation linchpin Test. It provides clear benefits to all three riparian, such as flood control, reduced flood damages and sediment control. It is clearly a philosophy that looks beyond the electricity and freshwater needs of local communities to a geo-strategic restructuring of the Horn of Africa. In addition, no independent, multilateral Environmental and Social Impact Assessments has been carried out suggesting that Ethiopia is reneging from the 2015 Declaration of Principles (Kandeel, 2020). The colonial powers have departed and so to continue to enforce treaties agreed based around their interests would be irrational. However, another trend stresses the need to approach the question from a broader and more holistic perspective. It can be demand-driven, typically caused by population growth, and supply-driven, typically caused by decreasing amounts of fresh water often resulting from climate change or a result of societal factors such as poverty. International experts analyze impacts of Ethiopian dam Ethiopian opinion is divided over the need for such huge investments in hydroelectric energy when the national network is still very underdeveloped and unable to cope. Second came the 2015 Declaration of Principles (DoP) which concerned the Dam specifically (rather than the Nile more broadly). Nevertheless, Khartoum continues to fear that the operation of the GERD could threaten the safety of Sudans own dams and make it much more difficult for the government to manage its own development projects. This is an intergovernmental partnership to provide a forum for consultation and coordination for the sustainable management and development of shared water. In my opinion, this should be negotiable, to fill the lake over a longer period, and only when the river is sufficiently full. Another difficulty for Egypt is that making this argument (i.e. These are two of the largest dams in Africa. In an effort to forestall potential water conflicts such as the one brewing around the Dam, an increasing number of bilateral and multilateral water agreements have been concluded in recent decades. The Danger of Multi-Party Democracy and Free Elections in Plural Societies Recognizing the Muslim Brotherhood as a Legitimate Player in Egyptian Politics was a Big Mistake Ethiopian Partnering with ASKY to Establish West African Cargo Hub Ethiopia and China's ZTE singed $800 million mobile deal H and M to build factories in Ethiopia Many historical grievances and distrust remain on the Ethiopian side regarding Egypt (Gebreluel, 2014), with some Ethiopian journalists assessing the 'Declaration of Principles' as being more in favour of Egypt than Ethiopia (Zegabi East Africa News, 2015). In contrast, if water from the Dam were to be used for irrigation purposes by Ethiopia (i.e. Indeed, Sudan had initially opposed the Dam but changed its position in 2012 after consultations with Ethiopia. Given the advancement of the dam construction - the GERD being, as of March 2015, 40% complete, according to Ethiopia - Egypt had good reason to reconsider its position (RANE, 2015). Impacts of Grand Renaissance Dam on Economic Development in Ethiopia [35] The lack of international financing for projects on the Blue Nile River has persistently been attributed to Egypt's campaign to keep control on the Nile water share. From this round of talks, it appears that negotiations are able to move forward and address other sticking points on the agenda, such as conflict resolution mechanisms and the dams operations in the event of multi-year droughts (Al Jazeera, 2020). Ethiopia, however, prefers to have the flexibility to make decisions on how to deal with droughts. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 56(4), 687-702. khadsyy Plus. The dispute resolution committee could be made up of the Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-COM), which includes the ministers in charge of water affairs in all member states of the Nile River Basin. Already, the United States has threatened to withhold development aid to Ethiopia if the conflict is not resolved and an agreement reached. Link, P.M. et al. Ethiopia and Sudan are currently developing and implementing water infrastructure developments unilaterally - as Egypt has done in the past and continues to do. Chinese banks provided financing for the purchase of the turbines and electrical equipment for the hydroelectric plants. It has also expressed concerns about the potential impact the initial filling of the dam will have on areas downstream. Disadvantages of the grand ethiopian renaissance dam jobs Egypt says. Factbox: Key facts about Ethiopia's giant Nile dam | Reuters Here, for the first time, Egypt recognised Ethiopias right to use the Nile for development purposes. per year, that would constitute a drought and, according to Egypt and Sudan, Ethiopia would have to release some of the water in the dams reservoir to deal with the drought. Rendering of GERDEthiopia is building one of the largest dams in the world, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), on the River Nile near the Sudan border. Ethiopia needs regional customers for its hydropower to ensure the economic feasibility of the GERD. In: Yihdego, Z. et al. In response, Ethiopia threatened military force to defend the dam and protect its interests (The New Arab, 2020a). The writer is a professor of political science at the UAEs Zayed and Cairo universities, *A version of this article appears in print in the 9 July, 2020 edition ofAl-Ahram Weekly, Spain La Liga results & fixtures (24th matchday). His successor, Mohamed Morsi, said that Egypt was prepared to defend each drop of Nile water with blood. An armed conflict has not emerged, but there are suggestions that Egyptian intelligence services undermined Ethiopia internally by assisting the Oromo Liberation Front in its campaign of civil unrest in Ethiopia in 2016. Consequently, under the principle of pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt, it could demonstrate that those treaties cannot bind it as it was a third party and did not give its consent. Al Jazeera (2020). The Chinese donors who have agreed to fund it have performed no independent social or environmental impact reviews. Flashcards. [18] However, as noted above, the trouble with relying on the DoP is that its legal status is not clearly defined. The former was initially funded by the World Bank and the European Investment Bank, but these later withdrew for legal and other reasons. A regional framework for the management of the Nile already existsthe Nile Basin Initiative mentioned abovewhich is a partnership among the Nile riparian states that was launched in 1999. Although talks chaired by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa on behalf of the African Union have resolved many issues associated with the filling of the GERDs reservoir, there is still no agreement on the role that the dam will play in mitigating droughts. Egypt accuses. In recognition of the fact that the Nile Waters Treaties had become an uncomfortable and anachronistic vestige of colonialism, ten watercourse states along the Nile (including Egypt and Ethiopia) agreed in 1999 to form the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). Ethiopia is pinning its hopes of economic development and power generation on the Blue Nile dam, which Egypt fears will imperil its water supply. Zegabi East Africa News (2015). First woman appointed to the Canada Supreme Court. Hence, the customary law argument might be too ambitious. While the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is taking shape on . (2014). The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will increase energy generation and development in Ethiopia, but it may have unwanted consequences for other Nile River users. Salman, S.M.A. It will take between eight and ten years to fill the new dam. Both countries are concerned that without a clear and binding agreement with Ethiopia, the latter will have full control of the passage of water from the GERD during droughts, which would be devastating to the lives of millions in Egypt and Sudan. Hence, it is hard to see how Egypt could make a compelling argument that it has been harmed by the Dam. Swain, A. (PDF) Benefit of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Project (GERDP) for . Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam: Ending Africa's Oldest Geopolitical Rivalry? Ethiopia is pinning its hopes of economic development and power generation on the dam. Ethiopia argues that developing this resource is crucial to its economic development, and to overcoming poverty and famine, that have plagued the country in the past. Today, however, Ethiopia is building the Grand Renaissance Dam and, with it, Ethiopia will physically control the Blue Nile Gorgethe primary source of most of the Nile waters. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) - ArcGIS StoryMaps Turning then to Ethiopia. The withdrawal from the project by Deltares has been met by a wave of objections in Egypt for fear . What Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia must overcome to all benefit from the Grand Renaissance Dam. A political requirement will be to agree on rules for filling the GERD reservoir and on operating rules for the GERD, especially during periods of drought. (2012). Cairo - U.S. Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Ambassador Mike Hammer met with senior Egyptian government officials on July 25 to advance a diplomatic resolution on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that supports the water needs, economy, and livelihood of all Egyptians, Sudanese, and Ethiopians. African Union, Israel and the crisis of the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam